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Fort Edmonton Turns 50
→ Laura Nichol was five years old when she started volunteering at Fort Edmonton Park. Her dad worked in park leadership, so the best way for the family to spend time together was at the Fort.
“If we wanted to see dad, we had to become part of it, because he loved
it here so much,” says Nichol. “So I started volunteering with my mom and my brother, as a little baby pioneer dressed up in costume. I learned how to do everything here, not just weird pioneer things like baking on a wood stove. I learned about what community engagement means and what it means to be part of a society, a community.”
She’s been with the park for the better part of three decades; through her university years, she was an in- costume interpreter. She met her hus- band at the park. And, now, she’s Fort Edmonton’s Core Programs Manager.
So, celebrating the park’s 50th anniversary is going to be extra special for her.
“It’s like a big birthday party for my family,” she says. “I met my husband here, as well as my dearest friends, and I’d include my supervisors and colleagues in that, too. It doesn’t just feel like the anniversary of an attraction, but the celebration of community.”
But, the park has changed a lot since Nichol began her volunteer work there. And, in the following pages, we’ll look at exactly how the Park has adapted
to become an even more important cultural resource in 2024 than it was in 1974.
SELKIRK HOTEL
October. The Capitol Theatre hosts movie screenings and multiple venues within the park host weddings and parties throughout the season. Another 30,000 guests came to the park in 2023 for this alternative programming.
Darren Dalgleish, the president and CEO of the Fort Edmonton Manage- ment Company (FEMCO), says that in order to keep the core business solid, the park needs to mix in contemporary programming. The Fort may be old, but it also needs to be new.
“How do we think about sustain- ability in a non-traditional way?” asks Dalgleish. “Museums struggle every- where in the world. You can’t assume that the next generation will have the same priorities on cultural institutions that four generations ago did.
“History gets a year older every year, but our methodology cannot... The minute you rely on the guest or on
the cost-effectiveness of the museum, you’re losing sight of what it’s really supposed to be. So, put those efforts
in a different area and let the museum
20 EDify. JUNE.24
JUNE 2024
“SELKIRK HOTEL, EDMONTON, ALBERTA.”, 1928, (CU159599) BY MCDERMID STUDIO. COURTESY OF GLENBOW LIBRARY
AND ARCHIVES COLLECTION, LIBRARIES AND CULTURAL RESOURCES DIGITAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY.
THE CHANGE
Nearly 100,000 visitors paid admis- sion fees and strolled through the park gates in 2024. But, running a living museum is a challenge. Families have so much choice when it comes to spending their disposable income — from the Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall, to going to sporting events, or just downloading videos onto their devices.
And, museums, as important as they are, can be a tough sell to kids outside of school trips. So, over the last five years, Fort Edmonton’s mandate has expanded. The Indigenous Peoples Experience, (IPE) which opened in 2021, has earned international accolades and boosted the park’s reputation as
a tourist destination — but it also is part of an intentional move to change the tenor of the heritage park. It’s not just a place to go and look at a white pioneer village anymore.
And, then there’s the non-traditional programming. The Dark event transforms the park into a theatre of horrors in